4000 BC to 1491
The Taino island
People reached Hispaniola some six thousand years ago. By the fifteenth century the Taino, farmers who grew cassava and played a ceremonial ball game, covered the island, which they called Ayiti. Spanish chroniclers describe five main chiefdoms, ruled by caciques such as Caonabo, Guarionex and Anacaona, the female ruler of Jaragua.